One of the distinctive qualities of all musical instruments is known as sustain. Sustain refers to the time period over which the musical sound can still be heard. Although there are times when you would like to minimize sustain, it is often a desirable quality of the musical instrument. Stringed instruments in general and guitars in particular have a fairly long sustain. In guitars, many factors affect the sustain including the type of material the guitar is made from, the kind of guitar, such as acoustic, semi-acoustic or electric, the shape, density of the strings, etc. just to name a few of the factors. Sound characteristics such as tone and brightness are also affected by the sustain of the guitar. There have been many inventions relating to increasing the sustain of musical instruments.
Another important quality of all musical instruments is known as tone. Tone is determined by the by the quality and quantity of overtones or partials present in the sounds that the instrument produces.
There is a need for a sustain block that enhances the quality of the sound of a stringed instrument without increasing the cost of manufacturing that can be used with new stringed instruments as well as being able to be retro-fitted with existing instruments.